Category Archives: China Law

The rule of law is a perennial favorite discussion topic in China, and I’ve certainly spilled lots of ink on the subject in this blog over the years. The issue had a bit of a resurgence recently due to a government conference here in Beijing in October whose theme was (I’m paraphrasing): “Law Sounds Good!”…

So I was reading Daniel Suarez’s Daemon last night (two big thumbs up, by the way) and suddenly realized that I might need a holiday. Here’s what happened. The novel is about an AI created by a computer genius who runs a multinational game company. The AI, which is not the sentient evil type that…

The world’s biggest companies disclose little or no financial details about their operations outside their home countries, watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in a report that ranks 124 firms and found that UK businesses were among the best performers, while Chinese companies and several US technology giants were among the worst. via World’s top companies…

Wang Xiaoye, one of China’s leading experts on competition law, says foreign companies that feel wrongly accused of antitrust behavior need to take their cases to Chinese courts. Most so far have been prepared to accept fines from the authorities, rather than to appeal their cases in the courts, and some have expressed fears privately…

China has fined UK pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline $490m (£297m) after a court found it guilty of bribery. The record penalty follows allegations the drug giant paid out bribes to doctors and hospitals in order to have their products promoted. The court gave GSK’s former head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly, a suspended three-year prison sentence…

The government’s recent intensive antitrust investigations were conducted following Chinese laws and never purposefully targeted any enterprises, Lu Wei, minister of the Office of the CPC Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, told a panel during the World Economic Forum in Tianjin. “China’s governance of the Internet follows the ‘bottom line’ approach, and all foreign…

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming and mooncakes will soon be given to Chinese family, friends, and colleagues to demonstrate appreciation for these individuals’ generosity throughout the year. Most will exchange delicious mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival with the purest of intentions. However, the holiday also provides an opportunity for individuals with less admirable intentions to…

The recent hullabaloo over a near-miss between planes from the U.S. and China near Hainan Island (China’s Hawaii-ish tropical vacation destination) has brought the usual chest thumping and stupid commentary. Might as well join in. One of the most perplexing I’ve read comes from a surprising source, The Diplomat, which usually has a higher level…

China is targeting foreign companies with opaque laws and rules, according to a group representing U.S. businesses there, contributing to a deteriorating environment for investment in the nation. I’m rather enjoying some of the news coverage of the latest AmCham survey. Selective enforcement of the laws in China? My goodness, I’ve never heard of anything…

A lot of folks are talking about the spectacle of expat investigators Peter Humphrey and Yu Yinzeng, who have been caught up in the GSK bribery scandal: On Tuesday, the couple appeared on China’s central broadcaster CNTV handcuffed and wearing orange prison vests, their faces blurred, admitting to “buying and selling” information in the course of various…

Until now I haven’t written anything on the corruption scandal rocking pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, partially due to other commitments but also because I didn’t really see an interesting angle. Let’s face it, this is not the first corruption story to hit the China foreign investment community, and it will not be the last. Neither is…

The post title, lame as it is, represents the sum total of all levity I can bring to this topic. This issue is about as dry and tasteless as . . . well, you can see where I’m going with this. Let’s get the facts out here as quickly as possible, then I just have…

To be clear, it’s not so much the lawyers who are cheap, just legal fees, at least compared to the U.S. and EU. This is the topic of “Asia’s Low Legal Stakes,” a recent article in The Asian Lawyer. Now wait, I know what you’re thinking. During this busy time of the year (for me),…

China will continue to create fair, justified and open conditions for foreign businesses, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said in Chengdu on Thursday. Zhang made the remarks while meeting with attendees of the 2013 Fortune Global Forum, which opened on Thursday in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province. (Xinhua) You see one of these stories…

You recall the fun and games when the Chinese media went after Apple as part of the Consumer Day “celebrations,” right? CCTV led the charge, followed by various Op/Eds and in-depth reporting on the U.S. MNC’s product warranty policy. Whether Apple was in violation of the law or not, it certainly was slammed upside the…

No one is talking about murder yet, but it’s just a matter of time. The latest food quality scandal in China is humming along steadily at the moment, with accusations flying, arrests being made, and protestations being hastily issued by restauranteurs and others in the food biz. All this turmoil just because mutton was replaced…

As someone who has been writing legal newsletters (or similar) for about 15 years, I speak with authority on this subject. I’ve also helped to train a boatload of lawyers with respect to drafting a variety of documents, both formal and informal. The problem is that most lawyers are wholly unfamiliar with the concept of…

A while back, I wrote about the feud between the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and, well, itself, specifically Beijing (aka headquarters) and its sub-commissions in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The latter two went rogue, with Beijing saying that the “CIETAC” moniker was no longer available to them and that anyone choosing to…

You might remember a strange little case that was filed back in 2011 by some Chinese dissidents in New York. Their weak ass sadly untested argument was that Baidu was censoring search results such that their anti-China content did not come up when folks did a search. The plaintiffs argued that this was a violation of…

Great post by Rachel at Tea Leaf Nation on whether China’s new leaders, some of which have law degrees, will be more likely to work on rule of law issues. My conclusion: maybe, but not because they have law degrees. Most of the post is devoted to netizen chatter on this issue, and I particularly enjoyed…